Wonderful News About Mandy

At Mannerly Mutts we go on a journey with both our canine and human clients.   It's sometimes a hard and scary journey that is filled with stress that this might not work out for the team.   Our success rate is high (in the 90% and above), but still every case involves new individuals and new circumstances.   Mandy was a dog that came from an unusual circumstance, as much of her life she was tied to a garage before she was rescued and finally adopted by her wonderful owner.  Her situation and reactions to the new life were not easy.   Compounding that was the fact that Mandy is a very powerful Lab/Golden Retriever mix.   She is responsible for me loosing ten pounds in her two weeks here.  Mandy's desire for freedom and thus her bolting were entirely understandable.   Plus she was attacked and impregnated while tied to the garage by her previous family.

Mandy was one of the harder cases due to her sheer strength and determination to get to a dog in order to attack it.   Very high defense drive due to her previous living conditions.   We only had two weeks with Mandy.   The main areas were to get her walking on leash controlled in normal circumstances, and to start her education that all dogs were not out to attack her.   Also, to teach her that when on leash with her owner, she would be perfectly safe.   The garage did not take care of her that well that her previous owners had tied her to.

Freedom and exercise were what motivated Mandy towards becoming more trusting and obedient to her human partners.  Here is Mandy's owner's update (Mandy trained here in March 2010):

Robin and Robert:

I'm way overdue in letting you know how Mandy and I are progressing, this because of frenetic happenings with my work that have left little time for personal notes of late. I've just finished working 37 days straight without a break, often long hours, and spent most of this first weekend at home in close contact with my pillow!

I continue to learn new things about and with Mandy as we go through our first summer together. She has recently discovered hummingbirds (with awe), fireflies (quizzically), watermelon (yum) and kiddie pools (having her own). She totally enjoys boat travel, having come on two recent day-long lake trips (see picture), but is still awful in cars.

Recently the two of us looked after a provincial park for three days and she was quite good at greeting people and dogs as they arrived. It was beastly hot (no pun intended) and I knew it was time to take her to the lake for an extra swim when I found her standing with her front feet in her water bucket!

She has also had her first dog sleep-over, as a good friend of mine and her golden came to stay for 4 nights. This went wonderfully: Mandy had no trouble with another dog sharing her house space and in fact we were kept busy early and late giving these gals the play time they craved. I'm including a picture of me, Mandy and her golden friend Emma at the beach.

I continue to work on Mandy's attitude toward unfamiliar dogs, with notable gains. She still tends to approach new dogs a bit too quickly but has not done this in "attack mode" in the last two months. She is learning to greet in more proper dog fashion.

A prime goal has been to get past a fenced yard with a very yappy terrier without Mandy ripping me off my feet. I'd hoped to achieve this by fall but have made faster progress. She can now make it by this yard with just minor whines and no bolting, although some days I would gladly strangle the damn terrier myself!

Also she is now good at being within a quarter block of unknown dogs without stress, and recently had a face-to-face with an unknown aggressive and equally-sized dog, and she pulled back on my verbal command. More work to do here, but remarkable progress from where she was just months ago.

She no longer bolts out the door and down the street when I come and go from the house, but instead greets me when I come home and (mostly) takes it gracefully when I leave. My office moved recently, so I can't take her to work with me as before, and we're working that out. She sits obediently for leash and food, with some big wiggles when excited.

I've been admittedly slack on leash "heel" lately, as I've been so bone-weary that we more often go the to ball field, where she can run, rather than walk around many blocks. We do have a daily 20-minute walk date (weekdays at 7am sharp) with an older dog, which she looks forward to, and do some heel work on this.

Once my frenetic summer season ends (mid-September), I'll be more structured in Mandy's daily routines and my own, and will be focusing on leash work.

The electronic collar, while rarely needed, continues to be a god-send. It has allowed her much more freedom, me knowing that I can use it to save both of us if exceptional circumstances arise in her heat of the moment.

All in all, she is now well on her way to becoming a normal dog and wonderful companion, in spite of her difficult past. It has not been an easy journey and we're not entirely there yet, but I am hopeful and the two of us continue to work at it.

Thanks for your support.

No thanks to my client for being dedicated and working with Mandy:)   This is what makes my job and my business the absolute best!!!

Maine and New Hampshire Dog Trainer
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Client Updates at 3/25/2010

Mandy is an adorable lab/golden/hound mix that was rescued from an unfortunate family situation. Mandy came in with what the owner felt was leash aggression. The actual problem appears to be an over reaction to dogs who tell her to back off. Mandy gets so worked up wanting to play, and then her defense drive kicks in if a dog says "uh no, I don't really know you that well". This is because Mandy goes full tilt boogey into a reactive greeting. She is really a very easy dog. This is a dog that has shown a few aggressive behaviors, but mostly reactive behaviors. Mandy is going to be returned home to a more active and free life, and with much more trust in her handlers:) She goes home at the end of next week, and her owner is traveling down from Canada to do a few days of training with us. Mandy's owner had been working it her on socialization at home, but found the very strong Mandy too physically taxing to continue doing it her self and be safe. Mandy was very close to being returned to the rescue before her owner finding Mannerly Mutts. This would have been a real shame, because ultimately dog and owner will be fine together, and they both love each other.

Zoey is a 15 month old GSD female who has gotten about four bites in on dogs. She had a traumatic experience herself early on, so some of what she shows is defense drive. Since the nips have been all around the ears or so, this dog is trying to show some self control. Zoey has displayed resource guarding issues around other dogs, and has only had minimal training previously which did not result in a dog that could be walked easily around the neighborhood on leash. The family has had many dogs in the past, but had just needed to do the minimum in training. Zoey has an optomistic future, as her owner has been working diligently with her. Here is what her owner recently wrote to us after lesson 2 " We encountered some dogs in yards on our walk and I was successful making her sit and down instead of barking and pulling. It was wonderful." Zoey's owner is very committed, even though she was pressured by family to give Zoey up. Due to the committment displayed, we are very optomistic about Zoey's future and remaining within the family (and the family liking her). Zoey's owner found out about us due to a past client recomending us.

Kitty is a super cute 6 month old Springer. Her owner brought her here because she thought Kitty was fearful, but Kitty just got the puppy jitters when someone scared her at the office. Kitty spends a lot of time with her owner at work. This cute Springer girl actually ends up being a confident well rounded puppy, who is enjoying training very much. She is going to turn out just fine. Springers are so darned cute, no wonder they almost always lord it over their owners:)

Nellie is a hound mix that was a bit fearful, and used to running away from her owners when let loose. She is coming along very nicely, and I see her owners all the time working with her in the neighborhood. It makes me smile just to think about it. Another dog that will do just fine.
Just about all the cases above have something in common, besides the fact that these are all female dogs. None of these dogs were ever formally shown how to follow. Nellie when inside the house or on the leash, actually does follow her owners gladly. It's off the leash when she can be a naughty girl, and scare her owners by running out of sight for minutes at a time. The puppy Springer, Kitty, is just in the perfect place to learn this right now. Zoey and Mandy were very much in need of this to keep their homes. Both dogs are already happier now that the conflict is gone, and the handler or owners can give them more freedom and exercise.

And today, Miss Gigi is coming to board, and give Mandy some pointers on what she has learned about proper canine etiquette!

Maine and New Hampshire Dog TrainingMannerly Mutts Blog